WCW in the 1990s was a great time to be a wrestler. It provided an alternative to Vince McMahon’s WWF and gave the wrestlers more places to work and get paid.
However, some didn’t even have to do the work, like Lanny Poffo and Iron Sheik.
On the latest episode of Story Time with Dutch Mantell, the former Zeb Coulter in WWE spoke about how WCW in 1989 paid The Iron Sheik around $200,000 dollars to sit at home and do nothing.
The former WWE Champion was well past his prime at this point and had no business wrestling for a huge organization.
He was signed to a one-year deal with WCW, but performed so badly that he was simply told to stay at home and ride out his contract.
He did just that, cashing his twice-weekly checks and not turning up to the shows to perform. Due to his absence from the arenas, he was forgotten about and his contract rolled over, giving the Iron Sheik another year of money in WCW without having to do any work.
Speaking on his podcast, Dutch Mantell said about The Iron Sheik in WCW;
“You know who else made money down there and never appeared for a long long time? The Iron Sheik – they let his contract roll over and then didn’t book him and he I know he he stayed like a year or two and whatever he was making, they just sent him a check every two weeks and he would go “oh oh Bubba Bubba my check will come let’s go to the bank and he never went out on the road.”
I think George Scott was booking at the time and he was stuck in the time warp of 20 years past and he thought “Well the Iron Sheik still got it going and anyway, he hires him and he’s so awful he makes maybe a few TV appearances and wrestles a few matches and then they just keep him off TV and then it was so long since you’ve been on TV that the contract rolled over and to a second year and he was probably making well into six figures.
They thought “God we’re paying him for a second year now, we best bring him back onto TV and he was so bad that they just told him to go back home again . So, he did almost nothing for two years and got paid.”
“well the reason is contract rolled over they forgot it. They just completely missed it and it says you know if you’re not I guess in the contract that it’s automatic second year unless they stop it and they didn’t stop it. I don’t know how long but I do know it was a year or two that he got he got ac heck and never showed up.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Story Time With Dutch Mentell with a h/t to Atletifo for the transcription.